


Roundabout

by HYPERFocused



Category: Sports Night
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2006-01-19
Updated: 2006-01-19
Packaged: 2017-11-29 02:17:10
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/681578
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HYPERFocused/pseuds/HYPERFocused
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“I’m having an ‘I need to get out of New York’ enlightenment,” Casey explains, and Dan laughs. Because yeah, maybe he had been a little gung ho with his New York Renaissance and getting away doesn’t sound like a bad idea at all.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Roundabout

**Author's Note:**

> For [](http://slodwick.livejournal.com/profile)[**slodwick**](http://slodwick.livejournal.com/) ’s [](http://picfor1000.livejournal.com/profile)[](http://picfor1000.livejournal.com/)**picfor1000** challenge, 4th round.  
> 

Just when Dan thinks he knows Casey, inside and out, his history and their future, Casey does something to change his mind, turns into somebody new. Today, the first of a rare three days off together, he’s taken charge of their weekend plans.

Dan doesn’t feel like being productive, though laundry and shopping are long overdue. Really, he’d like to just spend the three days in bed. Preferably with Casey, but honestly, a day long nap sounds pretty good too.

Casey has other ideas. “Pack a bag. We’re getting out of here.” He’s uncharacteristically mum about the specifics. It’s a good thing he wants to go away, despite Dan’s exhaustion. He’ll surely get a second wind feeding off Casey’s excitement.

Dan throws a little bit of everything into a duffel; it’s on Casey’s head if he’s ill prepared. Besides, the likelihood they’ll be out of range of a mall, or at least a Wal-Mart, is slim. Casey’s not a live off the land sort.

Casey tosses a set of car keys on the counter. Ford, so Dan assumes there’ll be something safe and sturdy waiting like a rented Taurus, or a Crown Victoria if he’s splurged; judging by some of Casey’s idiosyncrasies, a seventy-year-old woman lives inside him. Instead, there’s a cherry red Mustang parked outside Dan’s building, the kind a man having a mid-life crisis might buy, if his crisis hadn’t come in his mid-thirties, in the form of the realization he was in love with his best friend.

 

“A Mustang, huh? ‘Ride, Sally, Ride’?”

“I’ll thank you not to mention that name.”

“Sorry.” They both shudder. “So why the road trip?”

“I’m having an ‘I need to get out of New York’ enlightenment,” Casey explains, and Dan laughs. Because yeah, maybe he had been a little gung ho with his New York Renaissance and getting away doesn’t sound like a bad idea at all.

“So where are we going?”

“I don’t know, somewhere quiet. Someplace that isn’t here. I just need to be with you. It doesn’t matter where. I thought we’d just drive for a while. See where we get.”

He tosses both their bags in the back, and smiles at Dan, a little boy grin Dan’s only seen on rare occasions, but wishes he could see more. It’s a nice change from the tired smile Dan’s been getting lately. They’ve both been overworked and stressed. They need this break.

“Wait a minute. You, the great Casey McCall, want to be spontaneous?”

“Hey, I can be as spontaneous as the next guy.”

“Sure, as long as the next guy’s written out the pros and cons, bought insurance, and checked the next week’s forecasts on the Weather Channel.”

Casey glares at him, but doesn’t argue the point. “We should stop.” He motions Dan to the first rest stop off the highway. Dan hands him a few bills. “I’ll get us some burgers if you get whatever we need from the Kwik Stop.”

“Stupid name. All they save is one letter,” Casey grouses. Dan wants to kiss him for his Caseyness, but he can’t do that here.

He’s back with the burgers before Casey is finished deciding between chips or Doritos, though it occurs to Dan Casey’s probably picking up condoms and related supplies, too.

There’s just time for a surreptitious perusal of the glove compartment, where he’s not all that surprised to see brochures from a variety of Bed and Breakfasts in every direction they might meander. He doesn’t catch Casey’s approach to the car before Casey spies him snooping.

“So, what, you spontaneously got information about seven different B and B’s?”

Casey sighs. “All right. I might have made a few calls. And a few reservations, just in case. It’s leaf changing season. Oh, and by the way? Screw you.”

“I’d _like_ that, but my crazy boyfriend wants to go joyriding.”

“The two aren’t mutually exclusive you know.”

“Nice as it sounded in high school, sex in the car isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.”

“I don’t know. I never had any complaints in high school.”

“You mean you’ve – Casey, I’m surprised. Who was she?”

“Brenda Johnston. She was a cheerleader.”

“How very all-American. What happened to her?”

“She dumped me for Steven Bannockburn. Don’t worry, I’m over it now.” Casey laughed, but Dan could tell there was a tiny part of Casey that wasn’t, and he added Brenda’s name to the list of women who’d hurt his best friend, and therefore deserved his ire.

“You and Lisa never…” Of course they hadn’t. Lisa wouldn’t have wanted to mess up the upholstery. Casey just gave him the raised eyebrow. “No, I’m guessing not.”

“Good call.”

It was almost sundown when they come across it, a row of dilapidated cabins, and a boarded up circus carousel. The trees surrounding it gave it privacy, the dappled light making it look surreal.

“ _Stop_ , Dan, stop! I haven’t thought about this place in years. Maybe this was why I needed to get away so badly. Somehow I knew we’d end up here.”

“You’ve been here before?”

“I was seventeen. Summer job before I started college.”

Dan tries to picture a young Casey McCall, running the carousel, helping little girls onto the freshly painted horses, watching out for little boys with candy apple sticky hands.

The horses are stripped of most of their colors now, the merry-go-round rusty. But Dan can see the youth Casey must have been, full of promise, anticipating a ride that would never end.

Feeling daring, Dan unzips the cover, and urges Casey onto the circular platform. “Let’s make a new memory here. You’re not seventeen anymore, and I’m glad.”  
He unzips Casey’s jeans as they straddle the painted pony. Pressing against Casey’s warm back, he reaches around to stroke his erection. It’s awkward, but still good; Casey’s pleased sigh letting Dan know this was just what he needed.

“Wow.”

“Liked that, huh, Case?”

“Yeah, Danny,” Casey says, turning around to kiss him. “Hell of a ride.”  
[](http://pics.livejournal.com/hyperfocused/pic/00007tre/)


End file.
